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Investec Switzerland. The soaring cost of some medicines has sparked a controversy that’s hampered drugmakers’ ability to raise prices in their biggest and most profitable market. © Robert Byron | Dreamstime.com Novartis AG Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez figures the golden days of unfettered price increases are over in the U.S. “Those days are over,” Jimenez said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Manus Cranny. “You have to assume that there is going to be...

Investec Switzerland. Swiss watch exports dropped 3.8 percent in December, led by a plunge in shipments to Hong Kong and ending 2015 with the first annual drop in six years. For the year, shipments slipped 3.3 percent to 21.5 billion Swiss francs ($21.2 billion), the Swiss customs office said in a statement Tuesday. That compares with a 1.9 percent rise the previous year, when the value of sales reached a record 22.3 billion francs. The last annual slump was in 2009, when...

Investec Switzerland. Swiss stocks are set to outperform global markets this week after another volatile session of trading that saw some stock indices suffering losses not seen since the depths of the global financial crisis. © Christy Thompson | Dreamstime.com Investor sentiment was hit early this week after China recorded its weakest annual pace of growth in a quarter century and the IMF downgraded global economic forecasts for 2016. However, the prospect of further...

The top 250 global retailers generated aggregated revenues of US$ 4.5 trillion in 2014, up 4.3% on 2013, according to Deloitte. US retailer Wal-mart with sales of US$ 486 billion was the global leader by a wide margin. Tesco PLC from the UK and France’s Carrefour each generated a bit under US$ 100 billion ranking 5th and 6th respectively. Migros slides from number 38 to 40 in world ranking – © Arseniy Rogov | Dreamstime.com Switzerland’s Migros, with retail sales of US$ 25.6 billion dropped...